Abstract

Sustainable architecture has become a hot issue lately as the impacts of climate change become more intense. Architecture educations have responded by integrating knowledge of sustainable design in their curriculum. However, in the real life, new buildings keep coming with designs that completely ignore sustainable principles. This paper discusses the results of two national competitions on sustainable architecture targeted for architecture students (conducted in 2012 and 2013). The results are of high quality and prove that students are not only applying theories found in books but also doing innovations. Their designs show that students are able to put sustainable architecture in a broader context of the world life system. Some competition entrants even show that in the eyes of architecture students, sustainable architecture is not just about using renewable energy and environment friendly materials but also about contributing to the life system such as encouraging urban biodiversity.